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Mad Love
"Mad Love" is the series finale of . It first aired on January 11, 1999. It provides the back story of Harley Quinn, the Joker's girlfriend, and was based on the comic book of the same name, also by Dini. Plot Act One and Harley are about to give Gordon the ultimate cavity removal.]] Commissioner Gordon goes in for a dental appointment, only to find the Joker in the place of his dentist. Harley Quinn ties him to the chair, and just as Joker is about to kill the Commissioner, Batman crashes in. He tosses a pair of chattery teeth to the floor with disdain, and tells the Joker that he had deciphered his puzzle with unprecedented ease, calling him sloppy and predictable. Harley interrupts Batman's bashing and claims ownership over that idea. She then gases Batman and quips about it, much to the Joker's outrage. On their way out, the Joker tosses a grenade into Gordon's lap, but Batman throws it out the window in the knick of time. In the Funnibones warehouse, the Joker is busy trying to come up with a plan to kill Batman, but Harley is looking for an assignation. The Joker spurns her sexual advances, though, because he's obsessed with getting back at Batman. He rants about his mediocre plans, so Harley suggests that he "just shoot him." However, the idea of murdering his archenemy in such a mundane manner enrages him and he almost hits Harley with acid. He then stumbles upon "The Death of A Thousand Smiles" — a plan that consisted of plopping Batman in a piranha tank — but he soon remembers that he had dropped it earlier because he was unable to get a smile out of the fish. Harley resumes her advances, so the Joker kicks her out. Outside with Bud and Lou, Harley bemoans about her life and asks herself how it came to that point. She concluded that Batman was to blame from the very beginning and starts reminiscing about her past. works his charms on Dr. Harleen Quinzel.]] :She was once Dr. Harleen Quinzel, a career-orientated psychiatrist interested in "extreme personalities," which led her to take an internship at Arkham Asylum. There, she met the Joker, who quickly started to work his charms on her. After placing a rose with a note inside her office, Harleen confronted the criminal and threatened to turn him in, but the Joker dismissed her threat, claiming that if she really meant it, she would had done it by then. He tells her he had liked what he heard about her, particularly her unusual name, which could be reworked into "Harley Quinn," a spin on the clown character "Harlequin." Harleen did not share his amusement, and as she walked away, the Joker claimed to be willing to confide in her, finally catching her attention. The ambitious psychiatrist saw in this a landmark in her professional career, and immediately took the opportunity. Act Two shows his therapist an unknown side.]] :After nearly three months, Dr. Quinzel finally booked a session with the Joker. She had studied all his tricks and gimmicks, and thought to be ready for anything. However, she was caught off guard by his unexpected candor. The Joker told her that his alcoholic father used to beat him for no apparent reason. Claiming himself to be a misunderstood comedian, the Joker compared his father to Batman, who also never got his jokes. escape Arkham.]]Dr. Quinzel started to harbor conflicting feelings about her test subject: she was both amused by his comedic antics and heartbroken by his traumatic childhood, which in her opinion escalated into his life of crime. Moreover, she blamed Batman for the Joker's continuous misery. She had admittedly fallen in love with her patient. Her infatuation grew stronger and their roles were soon inverted, as Dr. Quinzel started to confide in the Joker. On one occasion, the Joker broke out of Arkham and went on a rampage in Gotham. Batman eventually captured and returned him to custody badly injured. Upon the sight of her beloved swathed in bandages, Dr. Quinzel set out to extricate him. She stole a harlequin costume and equipment from a trick shop, ran back to Arkham, neutralized the guards and broke the Joker free. Dubbing herself Harley Quinn, Harleen embarked on a life of crime thereafter. Harley decides that as long as Batman was around they would never be happy, so she orchestrates a plan to remove their nuisance. She sends out a message to the GPD informing them that the Joker went berserk and was plotting a scheme that could take out the whole city. She assures her cooperation in exchange for protection. Batman rendezvous with her at the docks, where she would deliver him the Joker's plans. When the Cape Crusader is examining the papers, the Joker appears on a boat, yelling a Harley and accusing her of treason. As soon as he opens fire at them, Batman jumps on Harley to protect her and hurls a batarang at the Joker, chopping his head off. Much to his surprise, however, Batman had actually decapitated a mechanical mimicry and before he realizes he's been duped, Harley injects him with a syringe, knocking him unconscious. Act Three Batman wakes up chained and hung upside-down over a piranha tank inside Aquacade. Harley explains to him that she lied about the Joker's plan, and that she wanted to prove the Joker that she was capable of pulling off on of his plans. She further explains that by hanging the victim upside-down the piranhas frowns would look like smiles, thus fulfilling the Joker's plan. plays with Harley's mind.]] As Harley is ready to descend Batman into the tank, she admits that she actually enjoyed some of their spars, but now it is time for her and the Joker to settle down. Hearing that, Batman begins laughing derisively. Unsettled by the fact that Batman never laughs, Harley tells him to cut it out. Then, Batman tells Harley that the Joker had manipulated her into helping him since the very beginning. He goes on to say that the Joker used to gain sympathy by making up sob stories about a tragic childhood. gets her reward for her undivided loyalty.]]Harley is taken aback, but angrily insists that killing Batman will win Joker back, but Batman points out that the piranhas will leave nothing of him to prove what she's done. Harley yields and phones the Joker. When he gets her call, Joker is enraged at being upstaged and, on his arrival, smacks her in the face, knocking her to the floor. Harley tries to temper his anger down by explaining the improvements she had made to his plan. However, in doing so, she had spoiled its joke, so the Joker throws Harley out of a window. Lying bruised but alive, Harley mumbles that it was her fault for not getting the joke. The Joker unhangs Batman from the tank, while apologizing for Harley's impetuosity. He then joyfully proposes to postpone their quarrel, and walks away whistling. and Batman in a fistfight!]]As he is about to leave, however, he realizes that the opportunity is too good to miss, and he'll go ahead and kill Batman himself. As he holds Batman at gun point and rejoices, Batman kicks the Joker, causing him to fire at the tank of piranhas. Batman hops to catch his utility belt with his teeth as the Joker struggles with the fishes to flee. Batman manages to escape his bonds, and dashes in his pursuit. The Joker jumps out of the building, falling on the top of a moving train. While he pokes fun at Batman for not catching up, the Dark Crusader somehow appears behind the Joker. Batman reveals that Harley was actually very close to killing him, and that manipulating the Joker's ego was his only chance of survival. .]]Batman then teases the Joker by calling him "Puddin'" — Harley's pet name that he so loathes. This instigates a brutal fistfight between the two. As the Joker finally pulls out a knife, Batman slugs him with such a strength that sends him flying into a smokestack. Back in Arkham, the inmates are watching the news with Summer Gleeson who states that despite his precedents, the Joker is unlikely to have survived. An injured Harley is carried away into her cell, she vows to turn over a new leaf, leaving her past obsession and craziness behind her. She is about to finally renounce the Joker when she sees a get-well letter and a flower from him, changing her mind. Continuity * Apparently, Joker's fish-specific toxin (used in , "The Laughing Fish") doesn't work on piranhas. * In the end, after Joker plummets to a chemical plant, but he survived. * The reason Harley was spared from death by her fall, was the toxins that her partner in crime, Poison Ivy injected her with in "Harley and Ivy". Background Information Production Inconsistencies * The closed captioning of this episode spells Harley's real name "Harlene Quinzelle." Paul Dini has gone on record to confirm that her name is spelled "Harleen Quinzel."http://www.angelfire.com/tv/harleyquinn/interview.html * The episode is meant to involve the origin of Harley Quinn, yet Batman and Joker are both seen in their modern-day revamp appearances during the flashbacks. Trivia * A cameo appearance made by Poison Ivy in the original comic book is mirrored here in its animated version as well. * Joker's exit line when leaving the dentist's office, "May the floss be with you", is a reference to his voice actor, Mark Hamill, being most famous for his role as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars trilogy. * The episode is mostly faithful to the comic, though the latter is more detailed. For instance, Batman briefly sketches Harley's life story before her employment at Arkham: she attended Gotham University on a gymnastics scholarship, planning to become a pop psychologist. * When Gordon walks into the dental office, the name on the door is "Dr. J. Reko," an anagram of "Joker." * When Joker is going through his old papers, one of them, oddly enough, has the logo of The Fantastic Four. * The "Death of a Thousand Smiles" is a play on the ancient execution method known as the "Death of a Thousand Cuts." * The exchange between Harley and Dr. Leland when she is starting at Arkham is adapted from a similar scene in the comic; the original version was reproduced, with Arleen Sorkin voicing Harley, as an extra feature in the video game Batman: Arkham Asylum, also written by Paul Dini. The initial conversation between Joker and Harley, as well as part of her breaking him out, were also reproduced as extra features on "Batman: Arkham Asylum". * In his book The Batman Handbook: The Ultimate Training Manual, writer Scott Beatty included Batman's escape from Harley and Joker (reproduced faithfully by the episode from the graphic novel) in a list of his seven greatest and most memorable escapes: not only delaying his own death by psychologically destabilizing Harley, but also making use of the piranhas to distract Joker, followed by grabbing his belt, extracting a lockpicki, and releasing his chains, using only his teeth. Cast Quotes Category:The New Batman Adventures episodes